SIMULATION TOOLS FOR BIOTECHNOLOGICAL NANODEVICES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 该开发项目涉及由生物材料制成或与生物材料结合使用的生物技术纳米器件的应用，以解决各种技术问题，从而找到理解生物学和诊断或治疗疾病的新方法。设计这样的设备通常需要测试许多原型，然后才能找到特定问题的最佳解决方案。计算机建模提供了一种评估许多潜在设计的方法，因此只有最有希望的设计才需要进行物理构建和测试。该资源侧重于生物技术纳米器件模拟的几个领域（http：//www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/Categories/Nano/）。例如，用于可视化和建模硅生物纳米器件的方法将允许用于制造计算机芯片的技术用于构建生物电子传感器。这种传感器可以廉价地生产，提供了一种廉价的方法来实现电子“镊子”来检查单分子。另一种有前途的技术是使用碳纳米管，碳纳米管是具有使其能够用于体内传感的特性的合成材料，例如，癌症化疗药物的作用。然而，模拟诸如此类的设备和材料可能是极其昂贵的计算任务。因此，资源正在追求粗粒度的方法来模拟合成材料，如洗涤剂，纳米管和二氧化硅，这将为建模新的纳米器件设计开辟新的机会[1]。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This development project deals with the application of biotechnological nanodevices made from or working in conjunction with biological materials to solve a diverse set of technological problems, leading to new ways to understand biology and diagnose or treat disease. Engineering such devices often requires the testing of many prototypes before the best solution is found for a particular problem. Computer modeling provides a means for evaluating many potential designs, so that only the most promising need to be physically built and tested. The Resource has focused on several areas of biotechnological nanodevice simulation (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/Categories/Nano/). Methods for visualizing and modeling silicon bionanodevices, for example, will allow the techniques used in fabricating computer chips to be employed in building bio-electronic sensors. Such sensors could be produced cheaply, providing an inexpensive method to implement electronic ``tweezers'' for examining single molecules. Another promising technology is the use of carbon nanotubes, which are synthetic materials with properties that enable their use for in vivo sensing, e.g., of the action of agents used in chemotherapy of cancers. However, simulating devices and materials such as these can be a prohibitively expensive computational undertaking. Accordingly, the Resource is pursuing coarse-grained methods for simulating synthetic materials such as detergents, nanotubes, and silica, which will open up new opportunities for modeling new nanodevice designs [1].